Chicken Noodle

There are few things more restorative than a bowl of soup. Doubly so for a big bowl of chicken soup stacked with noodles and leafy greens. But not all of us have time to cook from scratch during this hibernation period.

It seems that many restaurants, cooking shows and food magazines are featuring what they are calling comfort foods. These are foods that are suppose to give you a feeling of well being, bring back memories of growing up and mom’s home cooking. Many of the items on the comfort foods menu are traditionally inexpensive and what would be considered by our mother’s as everyday foods. The list includes meat loaf, mashed potatoes, and all sorts of pasta dishes and of course anything that involves chicken noodle. This combination is so comforting to people that an entire collection of books has come out that includes this in the title. Of all the possible combinations of chicken and pasta the favorite for most people is chicken noodle soup.

Chicken noodle soup is one of the simple pleasures of life that can warm you when you are cold, comfort you when you are sick, and bring back memories of home. So often it is not even the taste of chicken noodle soup that people are wanting, it is the gesture of getting or receiving a bowl full that seems to make them feel better. A bowl of the savory soup is a gesture of caring and kindness.

The other day a group working on a project with tight deadlines ran into a glitch. The morning was spent making telephone calls, running numbers and double checking weeks of work. The manager could see that the group was getting no where because panic had set in. The manager called a local restaurant that makes a great chicken noodle soup and asked to have an entire pot delivered along with bowls to serve it in. The manager then had everyone clear the conference room and behind the closed door of the conference room set up the table for lunch.

Once the bowls full of steaming chicken noodle soup were in place he had everyone return to the room and sit down. The employees seemed to calm down immediately when they walked into the room and smelled the comfort of the delicious chicken noodle soup. As they sat and ate their soup the panic started to dissipate. Soon one worker mentioned a possible solution to the glitch in the project. As the group sat enjoying their simple, satisfying lunch they began discussing the merits of the idea and adding to the solution. By the time the chicken noodle soup was gone, so was the glitch in the project.

Chicken noodle soup is not a miracle maker. It cannot cure illness nor solve all of life’s problems. Chicken noodle soup does have a way of making you slow down as you savor the flavor and often times it is the slowing down that helps solve problems and issues that you are facing.